Now every week, I'll be able to drain the lungs by myself at home. each lung has a tube going into it, going thru the lung cavity and out my side.

Lawd...fun stuff Right

Just hope it works.

Was gonna say caster oil has great antibacterial properties and eventually it may be a great resource for helping fight and prevent infections. It also seems to have beneficial effects on some skin conditons, but to date no studies indicate any value in actually helping lymph noes or the lymph system to repair itself.

Also, one problem is that it is very cytotoxic. In one study it was found to induce cell death and necrosis. So, for now, I'll pass on this one.

Hi Pat I am hoping all will go well for you. Get well. You are a good friend to all of us who walk this walk. I was given double water pills and they help some for now to drain my lungs so I can breeth. Ill take that. and say thank you God. Best to you. Cindy

Thanks to both all of you for your get well notes. I'm doing much better today. No drainage and the wounds are clean, so hopefully , they are healing nicely.

The home nurse is coming tomorrow and we'll do another draining. Doc says to do one every couple days this week.

Cindy, I hope so much the diuretics will help with that lung fluid and control it so you don't have to have these things installed.

Also, if the diuretics don't help, they may recommend a pleurodesis for you. It's a procedure where the pleural linings are "sealed" together to prevent the fluid from coming back into the lung cavity.

I had one done on my right lung last year and it was only partially successful. The all over sealing didn't work and I wound up with isolated areas of fluid.

So....when they put in the pleurx they had to unseal or work around this... omgthe pain in the right lung was beyond description.

Thankfully, today it has settled down.

I did a major revision on our page on pleural effusions, so hopefully that will help others too.